I was born and raised in a small town in rural Northwest Ohio and except for my time in the U. S. Navy, I have lived within 20 miles of my birthplace. Growing up and having your heart and mind, value programmed during the simpler times of the 1940s and 50s is considered a blessing to me. Times were more difficult and we were depression poor but I was fortunate to experience these times. I think my poetry reflects the values of the past, which have inspired me greatly.

I spent my entire career working for the Campbell Soup Company retiring early at the age of 57. I am married to a wonderful woman, my wife and soul mate, Donna. We have walked together since 1958.

There are people, friends and neighbors, who have known me for ages and yet, because they have never read my poetry, they do not know me for who I really am. Only if you have read what I have written are you able to see to the very depth of my heart and soul and know me, genuinely. Reading what I have written, complete strangers will know me better than many of my friends.

I have taken the title of this book from the cover photo, a wishing well that is located in my back yard. The three beautiful girls in front of the well are my grandchildren, Megan, Miranda and Morgan. In the upper left hand corner is my oldest granddaughter, Tristen and her brother, Tyler, my only grandson, is in the upper right hand corner. "Water From the Well" is a book of poems concerning many of the facets of living and each poem is a bucket of water pulled from the well of life.

I have been writing since I was about ten years old. My favorite topic is love and romance, thus the basis for my first book, "From The Heart". In this book "Water From the Well", I have tried to assemble a collection of my poems ranging from life and love to family, faith and death. Death, some might say, "a morbid topic for a poem", and yet, death, as we know it is just a part of the cycle of life. I am a firm believer in God and eternity and I think this is reflected in many of my poems.